Hustler fined $14K for not using condoms in porn

Hustler magazine founder Larry Flynt arrives at the premiere of a documentary on his life on Oct. 26, 2007. Flynt has been married five times, most recently to current wife Elizabeth Berrios, whom he wed in 1998. He married his fourth wife Althea in 1976 and they remained married until her death in 1987.

LOS ANGELES - California workplace safety officials have fined Larry Flynt's Hustler Video and another porn producer for not using condoms on set to protect sex performers from exposure to disease.

Hustler faces $14,175 in fines for three violations, including failure to provide condoms or other protective equipment, according to a Division of Occupational Safety and Health citation provided to The Associated Press Wednesday.

Hustler "failed to ensure the use of appropriate personal protective equipment, such as condoms" to protect its employees from semen, vaginal excretions and blood in the course of producing adult videos, according to the citation.

The current fines are based on the same section of state law that also requires hospitals to provide nurses with protective gear to spare them exposure to blood-borne and fluid-borne illnesses.

Flynt has said in the past that audiences don't want to watch porn in which actors use condoms.

Hustler was also fined for failing to maintain a written injury and illness policies and for failing to provide workers with vaccines for hepatitis C.

Hustler's citation stems from a Sept. 14 inspection of a jobs site in response to a complaint from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that advocates for safe sex in pornography.

Forsaken Pictures faces $12,150 in fines for similar violations. The fines were issued March 9.

Cal/OSHA Senior Safety Engineer Deborah Gold said the state continually investigates the porn industry, though job sites can be difficult to find, and has cited a handful of producers for violations in recent years.

"Clearly if an employee is having unprotected sexual contact with another person then there needs to be either engineering control, like simulation, or people need to use a condom or other barrier," Gold said.

A telephone message seeking comment left by The Associated Press wasn't immediately returned by a Hustler representative. Contact information for Forsaken couldn't be located.

Late last year, a porn actor tested positive for HIV at a California clinic, causing panic among actors. Some San Fernando Valley pornographers in the multi-billion-dollar adult entertainment industry shuttered productions as a precaution.